PTEROSAURS, Winged Reptiles of the Dinosaur Age: A Visit with Eudimorphodon in Bergamo, Italy

Caroline at the Eudimorphodon exhibit at the Natural History Museum, Bergamo, Italy.

In 2003, when I was researching my book PTEROSAURS: Rulers of the Skies in the Dinosaur Age, I visited the Natural History Museum in Bergamo, Italy, to learn more about Eudimorphodon, the pterosaur whose fossil skeleton had been found in the mountains nearby. (See my post of Feb 24, 2014 about that visit.) 

In early June this year I returned to Bergamo and the museum to get another look at Eudimorphodon and the rest of the exhibits.

The fossil skeleton of Eudomorphodon is remarkably complete.

What I especially like about the exhibit is the diorama depicting a model of Eudimorphodon in flight, demonstrating how it likely caught fish that were its main food. (Fossil scales and fish bones within the skeleton reveal Eudimorphodon’s diet.)

Going back to the museum was like meeting an old friend. PTEROSAURS: Rulers of the Skies in the Dinosaur Age was published in 2004 by Clarion Books. It is still available on Amazon as an e-book and as an audio book. Or, you can look for it in your library.

PTEROSAURS: Rulers of the Skies in the Dinosaur Age

One hundred million years ago, the skies were filled with enormous flying reptiles. With wing spans up to nearly forty feet, pterosaurs were the dominant life form on earth. Long extinct, we know about pterosaurs from their fossil bones.

On a recent visit to the Museum of Life and Science in Durham, North Carolina, my family bought me a wonderful souvenir--a plush Pterodactyl to go with my book Pterosaurs: Rulers of the Skies in the Dinosaur Age.  Pterodactyls were just one of many species of pterosaurs. The stuffed toy Pterodactyl will be perfect to share with children at my author visits to schools and libraries as I talk about about pterosaurs and other giant reptiles of the past. 

You can find Pterosaurs: Rulers of the Dinosaur Age on Amazon. It may also be available at your library. 

For reviews of the book and more information, go to my website.

PTEROSAURS: Rulers of the Skies in the Dinosaur Age now available at StarWalk Kids

One hundred million years ago, the skies were filled with enormous flying reptiles. With wing spans up to nearly forty feet, pterosaurs were one of the dominant life forms on earth.  My book, PTEROSAURS: Rulers of the Skies in the Dinosaur Age, originally published by Clarion, is now available as a digital book at StarWalk Kids and also soon at Amazon as a Kindle book.  I am thrilled to see this book available again.  Through the month of July you can read all of the books in the StarWalk Kids catalogue for free.  It is a great opportunity!

BOOKLIST Review of Pterosaurs

Gr. 2-4. After tackling megalodon, feathered dinos, and woolly mammoths in three previous books, Arnold and Caple add another extinct creature to their repertoire. This solid overview of "the only reptiles ever capable of powered flight" covers pterosaurs' ancestry, their peculiar physiology, theories about their behavior, and major fossil discoveries, frequently making abstract facts concrete through vivid comparisons: "If your arms were built like the wings of a pterosaur, your little finger would be more than 3 feet (1 meter) long!" Descriptions of about 20 of the more than 100 different pterosaur species known today round out the text. Caple's neatly labeled watercolors emphasize clarity over drama, but her subjects' exotic physical oddities (hairy, batlike bodies; toucan-bright beaks; bulbous, gaudily colored crests) will draw kids into the diorama-like tableaus.